CURTIS Davies revealed he did his utmost to keep best pal Nathan Ellington's spirits up during his goal drought.

The Albion players have become good friends since moving to The Hawthorns last summer.

Ellington helped Albion to a point against Blues with his seventh goal of the season and the first since scoring a consolation against Manchester United in the Carling Cup three months ago.

Davies admitted he had tried to help Ellington during his barren spell.

"I am buzzing for Nathan as he is my best mate at the club and now he has got that goal, hopefully he will kick on from that," said Davies. "He has been trying hard in training and getting back to basics.

"Now he has got the chance and scored a goal and nearly got a second - it bobbled up I have been told. He looks dangerous again so that can only be good news for us.

"I have had chats with him as a mate and as a team-mate and I can tell him where he is going wrong and tell him what he is doing right.

"He accepts my criticism maybe more than he will accept someone else's because he knows I am doing it for his benefit.

"And what people don't realise is he's been doing it in training all the time. I have told him that if he does the basic thing in games and gets his shots in then he will eventually get a goal. And it was a good finish on Saturday."

Davies claimed referee Phil Dowd was wrong to award Blues a second-half penalty after he brought down Mikael Forssell.

The England under-21 defender expressed his frustration at being punished and claimed he was fouled first.

"I wasn't happy with the penalty decision as I thought I got clipped first of all by Forssell and I felt I got the ball with my right foot," he said. "I have seen the angle that the referee saw it from and it was a hard decision to make.

"But I felt it was harsh. I thought I got clipped so I was rushing back and, as the ball bounced, I tried to get around it and I got it with my right foot and he landed on the floor. The decision wound me up to do even better."